On Wednesday, January 26, the Alliance Chapter of FBLA traveled to Chadron State College to compete in the fifth annual Best of the West Business Invitational. Almost 80 students attended the competition from Alliance, Chadron, Hay Springs, Hemingford and Valentine. These students competed in ten different tests with business-related topics to prepare them for the state competition that will take place in Kearney from April 11-13. 

Last year, Best of the West was a virtual competition due to Covid-19. But this year, fifteen AHS students and the two FBLA advisors, Mrs. Stark and Mrs. Harris, loaded onto a bus with the hopes of taking home the first place title. 

Each student took two 100 question tests regarding the business topic that the individual student chose. There was an hour time limit for each test. How well each student did on their test determined if they placed or not. 

After the two testing periods, students were served lunch in CSC’s cafeteria. There was also some downtime for students to get refreshments from Starbucks or play ping-pong in “The Pit.” Next, students gathered back into the testing room to ask questions to current CSC students who are majoring in business. Each student had the opportunity to write a question on a sheet of paper at the beginning of the competition that would be dropped in a box and saved for later. Questions were randomly drawn from the box and asked the panel as judges tallied the scores of each test.

With so many students placing individually, Alliance was able to walk away with the title of Best of the West Champion. Chadron took second place and Hay Springs took third. The SPUD would like to wish the Alliance FBLA Chapter good luck as they continue to prepare for state! All placing are listed in the caption of each photo.